Press Release
(Translated)
It
seems that the ban on Niqab (Islamic Face Veil) will take effect in the
Netherlands; after repeated attempts, the Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed
today the Government's proposal to impose a penalty for wearing Niqab in some
public places, and a fine up to € 405. The proposal bans wearing Niqab is
places such as hospitals, government buildings, public transport and picking
children from school!
As
for the pretexts and excuses that they often invoke, such as difficulty of
communicating with veiled women, the security aspect and others, they are flimsier
than a spider's web. Rather, such pretexts were refuted many years ago by Dutch
experts. Whereas, the most important thing is that these excuses are taken only
to cover up the real goals behind the ban on Niqab, and this is clearly evident
and does not require a deep political analysis to realize, at the time where
the anti-Islamic speech has become commonplace and the Islam- hostile policy as
something natural.
With
the exception of a few, the majority of the political parties voted in
parliament in favor of the decision to ban Niqab, including liberals of the
Freedom Party who advocate freedom, the SP Socialist Party, which advocates
equality, the Christians of the Christian Democratic Party, the reformed
political party SGP, which calls for charity, and do not forget, and how can we
forget, the Geert Wilders’ Party for freedom, which was a long time ago and in
cooperation with other parties calling to take harsh measures hostile to Islam,
but presently, these demands have become not the demand of Wilders' party
alone, but the demand for all the political parties.
What
is worst is that there is an organization called "Muslims and the
government," and this organization has received huge sums of money from
the government, so it was logical for it to support the unfair procedures against
Muslims and the decision to ban Niqab. And their excuses in
support of this resolution are more ridiculous than the excuses of the government
itself, such as their saying that the wearing of the veil will lead to division,
discord and disunity in the community. But do not they understand that a piece
of clothing cannot lead to the alleged division, discord and differences? and that
what leads to it is the racist procedures that work on the demonization and
distortion of a group of women and excluding them from society because of their
dress. Then, aren’t they aware that by this they are challenging a Shari’ rule?
So what division and discord that this "Muslims and the government"
organization claims?
And
truly, who is creating division among the members of the community when a
Muslim woman decides to wear Niqab and tries to ride the bus, but the bus
driver stops her from it while allowing festivals celebrators who cover their
faces with masks and others to ride the bus!?
This
constitutes a major threat to the Muslim community in the Netherlands, and is
creating a difference between members of the community when it comes to Islam. It
is not true to say that we are the cause of the division and disharmony if we
are committed to the provisions of Islam, and thereby we refuse to live with
the rest of the society in the Netherlands. But the opposite is true, it is the
rest of the society who have a problem with the Niqab and they are working to
ban it, and this clearly demonstrates that they are the ones who refuse to live
with Muslims.
If
Muslims deal with these Islamic issues lightly and content themselves to
monitor what is going on only in silence, they should expect that they will be demanded
make more concessions in the future. So if we accept today and remain silent on
the ban on Niqab, we should not be surprised if tomorrow they will ban the
Khimar (headscarves) and the Jilbab, because things moving in this direction in
many European countries; they are progressing slowly to crack down on
everything that is related to Islam. So if the Muslims do not take, all the legitimate
means, to defend their interests, who will do so on their behalf?
Okay
Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut
Tahrir in the Netherlands
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